Chapter 1368.1
While imitating Hercules and creating a unique strike was a significant achievement for Davey, it wasn’t enough to finish off Neltarid.
He’d always known killing a god was never going to be easy.
“First Destruction, then Thanatos, and now you.”
It was ridiculous that he was already at odds with three different gods. Of course, the evil god Neltarid standing before him was different from the previous two.
Neltarid stumbled back, reeling from the unexpected fatal blow. “Urgh?! Gaaah!!”
“Let me ask you something.” Davey took a step forward, but seemed to reconsider before he stopped himself.
‘Wait. Never mind. What’s the point of asking, anyways?’
The artifact that alerted him if anything happened to Willow had not gone off yet. He figured he still had some time.
“Gaaah. Cough. That attack... does it belong to your family?”
“Nonsense. Winley and Baris don't know the first thing about how to do something like this. Neither do Tanya or Aeonitia.”
“I'm not talking about them, Freyja. Is this Hercules's power?”
“You sure did your homework,” Davey remarked, impressed. “That means you should already know he didn't possess this level of power when he was alive.”
As the oldest member of the Hall, Hercules had a past that even the other heroes who joined later were unaware of.
“I at least knew he was in the Hall... but this is far more vicious than a simple increase in destructive power... Cough!!”
He was indeed correct. The primordial predator had created an extreme synergistic effect, inflicting massive damage upon his divinity.
‘Man, this is even more effective than I thought.’
“With this...” Davey began.
“Are you arrogantly thinking this would work against Goddess Freyja?”
“Oh, not at all. Let me correct three things before we do anything else. First, that's absolutely impossible. Second, I’m her saint, and she’s the one who protects me. Finally, I have no intention of going down with her.”
Unless a new god appeared and went on a rampage, he’d only use the new god-slaying power on Neltarid. After all, Goddess Freyja's disappearance would mean the end of this entire world and its laws. That was why she was purely absolute and omnipotent.
“At the very least, I can't commit the sacrilege of pointing a blade at my own parent.”
“Hehe. Is that so? I suppose it is. Even in this state, I hate her; I resent her; and I pity her. Truly a pitiful god.”
Neltarid seemed to have lost the strength to run from him. If Davey let him be, Willow would be in danger.
“Quit it with all the talking. Now that we've both shown what we can do, it's time to end this,” Neltarid coldly declared. As if agreeing, explosive divine power burst out from him.
It was a pressure so intense that any ordinary living being would’ve been ground into dust the moment they were exposed to it. The already mangled and contaminated dimensional rift warped to the point where repair was no longer possible.
Davey tried to draw out the power he had just acquired, but then ended up looking down at his fist.
‘Why isn't it coming out properly?’
It was then.
Boom!!
Neltarid, who had seized an instant to close the distance, swung his arm to thrust his extremely compressed power directly into Davey’s body.
Davey tried to dodge by jumping out of his range, but an attack made of divine power was never just about physical contact.
Ssss.
His injured arm instantly turned gray.
“No matter how much divine manifestation you undergo, you won’t get out of this unscathed,” Neltarid taunted.
Davey tried to shake off the gray invasion that was slowly petrifying him, but it was no use. He then changed tack to using his divine power. However, as expected, it couldn't stop the gray encroachment—t only slowed it down.
Frustrated, he forcibly wrapped the power of the primordial predator around his arm. He told it to devour everything, regardless of any indigestion issues.
Fortunately, it was incredibly effective, and greedily ate away at the gray invasion. While it didn't completely suppress it, it stopped any further progress.
Still, not being able to use the arm that had just begun to recover was a painful loss.
Boom!! Clang!!
Neltarid and Davey followed up by unleashing sharp attacks at each other without hesitation. They struck with no restraint, aiming to completely annihilate one another. Since Neltarid knew him so well, his attacks were undeniably threatening.
However, he was fundamentally less cruel than Destruction ever was.
“Old habits die hard.”
“What?”
Slash!!
Davey instantly shot forward, then drove a kick into his abdomen to pin him down. He then used telekinetic blade control to drive half a dozen energy swords through his body.
It was an attack that would’ve been fatal to any normal living being, but Neltarid immediately launched a competent counterattack.
He swung his sword, exploiting Davey’s weak arm.
Davey, fortunately, managed to block the attack with his sword by quick instinct, but he had overlooked one thing.
Crack!!
‘Ah shit.’
Since he usually used Super Ribbon, he had mistaken the durability of the energy sword for her exceptional durability.
He did twist his body away once he realized the mistake, but he couldn't completely avoid the injury.
“You have good instincts,” Neltarid remarked. “Don't put too much faith in your weapon when you aren't using that child.”
Clang!!!
Maybe it was the anger at his own mistake, or maybe because Neltarid had been running his mouth nonstop. Davey ignored his injury and charged in again to attack.
However, Neltarid, as if expecting it, swung his sword using the same swordsmanship as Davey.
“Damn it... just how much have you copied?”
The swordsmanship he had just used was Dokgo Jun’s Demonic Spirit Sword.
A series of collisions followed. To avoid dragging the fight out, Davey had to aim for a single massive blow.
The more he tried to find an opening, the more sophisticated and sharp Neltarid’s movements became. It was as if he tried to match his energy.
Davey knew he had to try harder, anything to create a single opening.
He was certain that there was decent swordsmanship he could form with sturdy energy blades. Given his current level, he knew the lower-numbered demonic swords wouldn’t be effective.
‘Then...’
He quietly gripped his sword again and widened his stance. He held the sword as if he was carrying a massive longsword on his shoulder.
Since the energy sword was thin, there was some distance between his shoulder and the edge, but that didn't matter.
Soon, various air currents began to gather explosively around his body and started to shimmer.
[Demonic Spirit Sword 85th Form]
[Extreme Demon Fusion Array]
[Heavenly Martial Demon Slayer]
He unleashed the same sword skill he had used with Isildi, back in the Demon World, to cut down an ancient demonic beast.
Step by step, he picked up speed and rushed toward Neltarid at an incredible pace. Performing a combined strike formation alone was actually a foolish endeavor. Nevertheless, Davey chose the specific swordsmanship because he judged that, given Neltarid’s habits, it was the only way to create even the smallest opening.
As he leaped and took flight, he crossed the apex in an instant and began to descend toward the god once more.
He saw him preparing a massive energy sword to counter him.
Crackle!!
At that moment, the contaminated dimensional rift warped, and the space behind Davey suddenly burst like a volcano. It was an unexpected variable.
As Davey fell through the air, blue and golden flashes shot in from each side at incredible speed, curving smoothly as they drove toward Neltarid.
‘Haah. Just in time.’
Startled by the sudden intrusion, Neltarid tried to suppress the flashes by releasing his power, yet the divine power Davey let out condensed like a massive arm and forcefully grabbed and halted his power.
While the fusion array was unstable since he had manifested it himself, with the help of the two women, that weakness practically didn’t matter.
Heavenly Martial Demon Slayer wasn’t just ranked in the 80s because it was a fusion array. It was swordsmanship at the peak of perfection even on its own.
“Haah.” Neltarid let out a hollow breath. He knew it was too late to completely parry it. He instead chose the lesser of two evils.
His strategy was to prioritize blocking Illyna's and Davey’s attacks, the most dangerous ones, while taking Isildi’s attack with his body.
Davey fell from the sky and the three of them closed in, their paths crossing and creating countless sword trails.
Slash!!!
Within an instant, the Continuum-Attacking Blade blended with Davey’s attack to shatter Neltarid’s defenses and pierce his body.
Alas, to call it fatal would be an overstatement, as his defense prevented the worst-case scenario.
Fortunately, Isildi’s attack, which was less lethal, had nonetheless pierced him cleanly.
Of course, the cost of landing that blow wasn’t small. Unlike Davey, Isildi and Illyna were thrown upward and coughed up blood, clearly having suffered internal injuries.
Neltarid’s eyes widened as he fiercely shouted, “Something like this won't kill me...”
Davey, who had been unable to use his arm until just now due to the gray invasion, managed to move it again. On top of that, he began condensing and merging a mysterious power.
Neltarid knew exactly what that was.
Heavenly Martial Demon Slayer had been nothing more than bait from the start, meant to create an opening. Neltarid had fallen for it hook, line, and sinker, giving Davey a brief opening.
[God of War Hercules Annihilation Strike]
[Primordial Predator]
[Compound Strike]
[God Annihilation]
He desperately tried to defend himself, but that very brief opening proved fatal to him.
As the second God Annihilation landed on him, it devoured most of his existence.
